A local team of players can still play through Hyrule Warriors' campaign in an offline co-op multiplayer mode, which assigns one player to the Wii U GamePad's screen while the television displays their partner's character and viewpoint. Hyrule Warriors will feature online play in some capacity, but its core campaign is strictly offline-only.

News of Hyrule Warriors' lack of online play comes shortly after publishing partner Koei Tecmo confirmed that the upcoming Samurai Warriors 4 will feature cross-platform online multiplayer gameplay for the PlayStation 4, PS3 and PS Vita. Online play has been a standard feature for Koei Tecmo's Warriors series and its spinoffs since 2011's Dynasty Warriors 7.